【51CTO專訪】如果你關注Visual Studio和.NET框架的發(fā)展，你肯定對Soma這個名字不陌生。Somasegar是現(xiàn)任微軟開發(fā)工具事業(yè)部全球資深副總裁，負責Visual Studio，Expression系列，.NET框架，Team Foundation Server等一系列產(chǎn)品，同時還負責管理MSDN、TechNet等網(wǎng)站。在他的博客上，可以看到這些產(chǎn)品的最新消息，以及他個人對整個產(chǎn)業(yè)的觀點與看法。 

目前，Soma同時領導中國、印度、以色列的三個海外研發(fā)中心，也是微軟STB中國研發(fā)團隊顧問委員會的領導者之一。2012年9月18日是微軟上海研發(fā)中心的年度產(chǎn)品展示會，微軟內(nèi)部的各個團隊向委員會成員以及其他團隊的工程師們展示交流他們在一年中的工作成果，Soma也因此再次到達上海。今年，微軟第一次將年度產(chǎn)品展示會對外開放，51CTO編輯受邀觀看了展示，并對Soma先生進行了現(xiàn)場采訪，談了談Soma對開發(fā)團隊和開發(fā)工具的看法，以及整個開發(fā)者群體年輕化的看法。

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Somasegar先生

以下是采訪實錄。 

51CTO：Soma你好！感謝您接受51CTO的采訪。那么，您負責中國、以色列和印度地區(qū)的研發(fā)中心，您對這三個國家的開發(fā)團隊有什么感覺？

Soma：他們太棒了！如果讓我用一個詞來描述的話那就是太棒了。最初我們決定在這三個國家建立研發(fā)中心的原因就是因為人才，那些對軟件充滿熱情的人才，以及受過良好計算機教育的、能夠通過軟件的途徑解決全球規(guī)模的問題的那些人才。中國的人才尤其多，我們希望通過他們的才能為我們在全球范圍內(nèi)的用戶構建新的技術，解決方案和服務。

在這個方向，我們已經(jīng)做了十多年。我來中國已經(jīng)是第13還是第14次，而每次過來這里，我都為這里做出的工作感到興奮。我們在中國的研發(fā)團隊為我們?nèi)虻臉I(yè)務做出了很多貢獻，這里每年都在變得更好，更加令人興奮。

51CTO：上海研發(fā)中心主要都做些什么？

Soma：我們在2005年啟動了上海研發(fā)中心，到現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有7、8年的時間了。上海這邊主要專注我們的服務器和工具這一塊，包括Windows Server，SQL Server，System Center，以及開發(fā)工具這一塊，涉及的范圍相當廣。比如說Windows Azure，這邊的團隊做了很多針對HPC負載的工作，以及Windows Azure上的高性能負載的工作。今天我們的產(chǎn)品展會上可以看到部分我們上海團隊的研發(fā)成果。

51CTO：所以，上海團隊對于整個微軟的云計算策略都非常重要了？

Soma：沒錯。在我看來，這里的工作是我們整個公司轉型成為云服務公司的關鍵性環(huán)節(jié)。比如說，我們在幾個月前決定在這里啟動一個云計算創(chuàng)新中心的團隊，CCIC。為什么要將這個團隊建設在上海？因為我們認為在這里建立一個強勁的技術團隊非常重要，他們跟我們在這里的客戶，合作伙伴，以及政府合作伙伴們一起，幫助客戶找到部署私有云或公共云的最合適的解決方案。我們在這里的工作對于將云服務帶入中國是至關重要的。

51CTO：最近您的一篇博客提到了青少年開發(fā)者的崛起。您認為是什么原因促成了這個現(xiàn)象？

Soma：有幾方面的原因吧。第一，現(xiàn)在的小孩子們在越來越早的時候就開始接觸技術。第二，設備的價格開始變得越來越低，很多學生要購買一臺智能手機或者平板的門檻越來越低。第三，整個世界變得越來越小了。有了應用商店，以及云計算，任何人都可以開發(fā)一個應用，把應用放到應用商店上，供全球的用戶群消費，還可以看到這個應用的表現(xiàn)如何，市場是否成功，以及用戶如何使用自己的應用。這三點直接促成了青少年開發(fā)者群體的成熟化。

在微軟，我們有很多很棒的活動，幫助青少年和學生們建立對軟件開發(fā)的興趣以及進行開發(fā)。我們有Imagine Cup，這是一個全球范圍內(nèi)的開發(fā)大賽，我們已經(jīng)做了十年，已經(jīng)有數(shù)十萬來自全球的學生參與了這個活動，展示他們?nèi)绾斡眉夹g解決現(xiàn)實生活中的問題。我們還有DreamSpark計劃，為學生提供免費的專業(yè)工具以及平臺。另外，無論你是學生還是任何人，如果你想創(chuàng)業(yè)，我們有BizSpark計劃，不僅為你提供技術支持，還提供與業(yè)內(nèi)人士接觸的機會。我們有大量類似的計劃，幫助那些對軟件感興趣或者想做應用的人們更容易的接觸到最新的技術，展示他們的創(chuàng)造力與才華。

51CTO：那么，開發(fā)工具在這個轉變當中扮演了怎樣的角色？

Soma：如果你蓋房子，你需要磚頭、木頭和水泥這些元素。要構建應用，你需要一個開發(fā)環(huán)境，一個IDE。所以我們有Visual Studio。我們想要用一個開發(fā)環(huán)境構建各種類型的應用：移動應用，平板應用，桌面應用，云計算的應用……我們想要的是能夠復用我們已經(jīng)積累的技能、專業(yè)與知識來構建這一切。作為一個開發(fā)者，你絕對不會想要在開發(fā)這個應用的時候使用這套IDE，開發(fā)另一個應用的時候使用另一套IDE，去學習另外的一套東西。我們不想這樣折騰。你想要有一個用起來非常舒服的IDE，然后用它來完成所有的工作。那么，Visual Studio就希望成為一套任何想要構建應用的人都可以用的舒服的IDE。無論是剛開始寫應用的學生，還是經(jīng)驗豐富的專職企業(yè)開發(fā)者，我們希望Visual Studio對他們都是一套很棒的IDE。

51CTO：現(xiàn)在的Visual Studio和兩年前的版本有什么不同？

Soma：我們前不久剛剛發(fā)布了最新的Visual Studio 2012，新的東西很多。概括來說，我感覺最大的變更有兩點。第一，當我們談到構建一個現(xiàn)代的應用，那么我們會需要涉及到各種設備上的功能，以及各種設備上的用戶體驗。作為終端用戶，我們希望我們的應用和數(shù)據(jù)信息能夠跨平臺訪問和使用，我們希望無縫的跨平臺信息傳遞。為了實現(xiàn)這一點，我們需要所有的前端設備與后端連接，而越來越多的后端正在變成云的一部分。那么，你需要在后端建立不間斷的服務，在前端建立各種設備的體驗。很多開發(fā)者對我們說，我想要構建一個應用，既照顧到后端的服務，又照顧到前端的各種設備呈現(xiàn)元素。我認為Visual Studio 2012就提供了構建這樣一個現(xiàn)代應用的最佳平臺。第二點，越來越多的團隊過來跟我們說，他們想要更加敏捷。在團隊的環(huán)境中，現(xiàn)在有現(xiàn)代的應用生命周期：持續(xù)的反饋，持續(xù)的質量測試，持續(xù)的部署與交付。敏捷開發(fā)和現(xiàn)代的應用生命周期管理方面，Visual Studio 2012也做的非常好。

下一頁是采訪內(nèi)容的英文實錄。

#p#

51CTO: You are in charge of STB in China, Israel and India, how do you feel about the developing teams in those three countries? 

Soma: Oh they are fantastic. If I were to describe them in one word, I would say fantastic. The reason we decided to set up research centers in China, India and Israel is because of the talent, people who are passionate about software, people who are experienced in education of computer science that can really solve problems at massive global scale using software. Especially in China, we have tons of talent, and we want to make sure that they use their talent as we go forward and build technologies, solutions and services for a world-wide customer base.

We've been on this journey for more than 10 years now. This is my 13th or 14th visit to China. Every time I come here, I get even more excited and enthusiastic about all the capability that they are building here. All these could not happen without our R&D in China, every year it is getting more advanced, more and more exciting, and it is having impact on our product and solutions globally.

51CTO: So how about Shanghai R&D center?

Soma: For Shanghai, we started off in around 2005, so it's about 7-8 years now. If you look at it from our server and tools perspective, that is what we do in Shanghai. We work on Windows Server, our technologies for SQL Server, our technologies for System Center, our work for developer tools, that is a wide variety of things we are doing in Shanghai R&D center. If you take Windows Azure, for example, a lot of good work for HPC workload, and high performance workload for Windows Azure, is coming out of our team in Shanghai here. If you had a chance to look at the product fair today, it is a glimpse of the products we are at work for the teams here in Shanghai.

51CTO: So Shanghai is a important team for the entire cloud strategy.

Soma: Absolutely. The work that we do here is what I called the critical part of us transforming ourselves to a cloud services company. Just to give you an example, a couple of months ago we decided to start a group here that we called the cloud computing innovation center, CCIC. The whole reason we setup the team is because we find that it is highly important to have a highly technical team here in China, in Shanghai, that is going to work with our customers, with our partners, with our government customers, to help our customers figure out how we are going to find out solutions that can be deployed, whether it is for private cloud, or for public cloud. So the work that we do here is really critical for our continuous delivering of cloud services into China.

51CTO: Cool. So in one of your recent blog you mentioned about all the teenager developers. What reasons do you think that caused this shift?

Soma: There are a couple of reasons. One is, as time goes on, kids get exposed to technology earlier in their life. The second thing is, the cost of devices is coming down and down as time goes on. So for lots of students, access to a smartphone, or access to a slate, is becoming more and more affordable. The third thing is, the world is becoming a smaller place. With the presence of app stores, and the cloud, it is now easy for anybody who wants to do an application to be able to build an application, put it on to the app store, being able to reach a world-wide customer base, and being able to see how it affects them, how successful, how they interact with their application. So the fact that they are exposed to technology at an earlier age, the fact that they can get their devices at a lower rate, and the fact that they can reach their customers at a global base in a seamless way, these are the reasons why you see those teenager developers coming out. And we've got some fantastic programs in Microsoft to continue promote interest and excitement on teenagers and students, to be able to build next generation applications. We've got things like the Imagine Cup, which is a world-wide contest we've been doing for 10 years, and we've had hundreds of thousands of students from around the world coming together to show off what they can do with technology to solve real-world problems. We've got programs called DreamSpark, if you are a student, they give you access to all our professional tools and some other platforms tools in a free way. No matter if you are a student or a teenager, or anybody, who wants to be an entrepreneur, we got a program called BizSpark, which makes it easy to access technology, and access to peers and other people in the industry. So we've got a variety of programs for people who are interested in using software or who wants to build applications, and we want to do our part to make it friction free for them, let them show their creativity and see how far they can go.

51CTO: So what is the role of IDE playing here?

Soma: If you are working a building, you need access to bricks, wood and cement, these are the basic ingredients. If you are to build an application, you need a developing environment. That's what we call IDE, and Visual Studio comes into the picture. We want to have one integrated tool set, that you as a developer can use to be able to build all kinds of applications. You want to build a mobile application, you want to build a slate application, you want to build a desktop application, you want to build an application for the cloud, you want to be able to do all of these, you want to use and re-use your skills, your expertise and your knowledge. The last thing you want to do as a developer is, if I want to build a client application, let me go onto this tools and this set of IDE, if I want to build something else, you have to learn something else. We don't want to do that. You want to have one environment which you feel very comfortable, and once you have that one environment, you can do everything you need to do. Practically for today's developers, there are multiple platforms that are given to them at one time. That's when the IDE comes into the picture, and Visual Studio wants to be for anyone who wants to build an application. You can be a teenager who just started on your first application, or you can be the most seasoned, professional developer working in the enterprise, but no matter who you are, we want to make sure you have a great IDE.

51CTO: So how is Visual Studio today different from Visual Studio 2 years ago?

Soma: There are a couple of new things. We just launched Visual Studio 2012, the latest version of Visual Studio. If I were to summarize what is new in the product, there are two big things that come to my mind. One is, if you are interested in building a modern application, and modern applications, when I think about it, you got to set up devices on the front-end, and all these devices need to have front-end user experience, because you as an end user want your application and your information to flow through seamlessly as you go from one device to the next. For that to happen, the devices need to stay connected to something at the back-end, which more and more is becoming the cloud. So you got to set up continuous services from the back-end, you have to set up connected devices experience on the front-end. More and more people are saying, I want to build an application that spans both the services at the back-end and the forms of device factors at the front end. So in Visual Studio 2012, we think it's the best tool set for you to be able to build connected devices, continuous services on the server, is what I called modern applications. The second thing is, more and more teams of developers are coming to say, I want more agility. I want to be highly agile. When I work in a team environment, we call a modern application life cycle. Continuous feedback, continuous quality, continuous deployment and delivery. So when you want to adopt an agile development methodology, a modern lifecycle, Visual Studio 2012 provides the best modern lifecycle environment.